Acta Introduces MetaShare Packaged Metadata Integration; Open Metadata Architecture Extended To Support Leading BI/OLAP Tools From Hyperion And Brio
Acta, Inc., a leader in packaged data warehousing solutions for enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, has announced a major extension of its Open Metadata Architecture. ActaWorks, the company's award winning flagship product, now provides packaged metadata integration for leading business intelligence and OLAP products. ActaWorks is the company's extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) software for constructing and deploying ERP data warehouse solutions. The product was designed from inception to tightly integrate with ERP software from companies such as SAP AG and PeopleSoft.
Acta's Open Metadata Architecture (OMA) - now enhanced in ActaWorks 3.1 - is an open, extensible metadata architecture that is based on standard relational database technology. OMA enables open metadata exchange with any metadata repository, traceability of data elements from front-end BI/OLAP tools back to ERP sources, and advanced impact analysis of changes to the source ERP or target data warehouse.
"The ability to show the users of our data warehouse the exact SAP R/3 source field for each data element they use is invaluable," said Paul Mathern, manager of data warehousing at Maxtor Corporation. "Because data element derivation is available to users through their business intelligence tool, they don't need to ask IT for the information, which is particularly important as we are rolling out the warehouse worldwide."
The newly released MetaShare component of Acta OMA delivers seamless integration between the Acta Metadata Repository and leading BI/OLAP tools such as those from Hyperion, Brio and Business Objects.
"Closer metadata integration with our BI/OLAP partners makes it even easier and faster to deploy Acta's packaged solutions for SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft," said Acta President and CEO Carol Mills Baldwin. "Acta MetaShare incorporates 15 months of production experience by more than 75 SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft customers who have provided us invaluable feedback," Baldwin said.
ActaWorks is a leading data warehousing platform designed specifically to address the challenges of building data warehouse solutions using ERP data. Using an intuitive graphical user interface, ActaWorks extracts data from ERP systems and other sources, transforms and cleanses the data, and loads it Acta RapidMarts or other data marts or warehouses, providing easier access to data for strategic business analysis and reporting.
ActaWorks is the foundation technology for Acta's RapidMarts - packaged data warehouses that can be rapidly deployed to address specific areas of business analysis such as sales, cost, and inventory analysis. RapidMarts provide an "out-of-the-box" solution that includes a target schema, source-to-target mappings and transformations that handle change data capture, hierarchy extraction, error recovery and other complex data warehouse processes.
The MetaShare component of Acta's OMA delivers seamless integration between the Acta Metadata Repository and Hyperion Integration Server, a graphical environment from Hyperion for creating and managing OLAP applications. MetaShare is also integrated with Brio Enterprise business intelligence solutions.
MetaShare for Hyperion enables users to automatically populate Hyperion Integration Server with Acta metadata that can be leveraged to deploy integrated analytic applications powered by Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server. MetaShare for Hyperion is available immediately from Acta.
MetaShare for Brio provides seamless access from Brio Enterprise 6.0 into the Acta Metadata Repository, including operational statistics and data traceability to the ERP source system. MetaShare for Brio is implemented as an embedded component of Brio Enterprise 6.0 and is available immediately.
MetaShare For BusinessObjects is scheduled for release later this year.
"The metadata integration of ActaWorks 3.1 and Hyperion Integration Server will provide our joint customers with a powerful, integrated, end-to-end solution for developing and deploying analytic applications from their ERP systems," said Tobin Gilman, director of product marketing at Hyperion. "Acta and Hyperion have been jointly delivering high-value solutions to our customers for the past year, and we look forward to continuing to work with Acta to successfully market this new solution to many SAP and PeopleSoft accounts."
Acta OMA is an open, extensible metadata architecture that is based on standard relational database technology. Acta OMA makes it possible to:
ActaWorks 3.1, MetaShare for Hyperion, and MetaShare for Brio are available immediately.
Acta, Inc. is a leader in packaged ERP data warehouse solutions. Initially focused on SAP AG and PeopleSoft, Acta's solutions include packaged data warehouses, called RapidMarts, built around the industry's only extraction, transformation and loading tool, ActaWorks, architected from inception to be very tightly integrated with ERP systems. Acta is an independent software vendor (ISV) participating in the SAP Complementary Software Program (CSP) and PeopleSoft's Global Alliance Program. ActaWorks has been certified by PeopleSoft and SAP BW interface certified by SAP.
Acta is privately held with international headquarters in Palo Alto, CA and regional headquarters in Frankfurt, London and Paris. Acta's customer list of over 75 Fortune 1000 companies in eight countries includes Chevron, FX Meiller, Guinness, Maxtor, Monsanto, Sanofi Winthrop, S-B Power Tools, a division of Bosch GmbH; and Shell Chemical Company. For more information, visit Acta's World Wide Web site at http://www.acta.com.